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Through Nov. 4, 2011 there have been 10,933 organized crime killings in Mexico this year, based on unofficial tally by Reforma

15,273 organized crime killings in Mexico occurred in 2010
(Probably needed the assault weapons from the US GOVERNMENT so the totals of organized crime killings keep going up and WE have ANOTHER imagined or created war on our hands. War is not good business. Business is good business. Legalize cocaine and watch how many cartels dry up. Or, provide FREE cocaine to those in need. NON-MEDICAL cocaine. People can sign up and acquire a "Recreational Drug User" RDU Card from the federal government's office of Homeland Security, I BELIEVE, I said I BELIEVE, that should tell you something if you've been paying attention or paying rent for the past 9+ years.)

The majority of organized crime deaths occur in only 4 of Mexico’s 32 states
(Is that because that's where the COCAINE is?)

Major battlegrounds are shifting from the state of Chihuahua to Neuvo Leon, from the city of Juarez to Monterrey.

Other countries such as Honduras, Jamaica, El Salvador and Venezuela, still have higher annual murder rates than Mexico
Government officials and journalists face rising threats and acts of violence

At least 230,000 people have been displaced within Mexico as a result of the drug violence and other factors, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center.
(How many were displaced before the US began providing high powered assault weapons to the cartels to strengthen them. Yes/No question, are the cartels stronger with assault rifles and 50 caliber rifles in their hands?

...and we pay these folks huge sums of money to engage in this type of criminal activity?)

... The Unites States Attorney General is a Cabinet member and therefore has a salary of $191,300 (as of 2008)

Comment

CALCULATING RATE OF PAY OF DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE EMPLOYEES FOR PURPOSES OF "COVERED PERSONS"
DETERMINATION UNDER INDEPENDENT COUNSEL ACT
The term "rate of pay" in the section of the Independent Counsel Act that indicates which Department of Justice employees are "covered persons" does not include "locality-based comparability payments" under 5 U.S.C. § 5304.

April 2, 1997

MEMORANDUM OPINION FOR THE

ACTING DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL
Under 28 U.S.C. § 591(b)(4) (1994), the class of "covered persons" subject to investigation by an Independent Counsel includes "any individual working in theDepartment of Justice who is compensated at a rate of pay at or above level III of the Executive Schedule under section 5314 of title 5." You have asked whether the term "rate of pay" in this section includes "[l]ocality-based comparability payments" under 5 U.S.C. § 5304 (1994). We conclude that it does not.

Under provisions in the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, Pub. L. No. 95-521, § 601, 92 Stat. 1824, 1867 (codified as amended at 28 U.S.C. §§ 591-599 (1994 & Supp. II 1996)) ("Act" or "Independent Counsel Act"), an Independent Counsel may be appointed to investigate alleged crimes by certain high-level officials of the government. (1) In some instances, the officials subject to such investigations are identified by their level of pay. The Act reflects the judgment that, in the Department of Justice, officials whose rate of pay equals or exceeds Level III of the Executive Schedule "are those . . . closest to the Attorney General and the President and would, therefore, present the most serious conflict of interest of an institutional nature if the Department of Justice were to have to investigate and prosecute serious criminal allegations against any of these individuals." S. Rep. No. 95-170, at 53 (1977). The "covered persons" include the Deputy Attorney General, the Associate Attorney General, and the Solicitor General. See 5 U.S.C. § 5313 (1994 & Supp. II 1996); id. § 5314. The Act also specifies that the Assistant Attorneys General are "covered persons," even though they are paid less than the amount for Level III. See 28 U.S.C. § 591(b)(4); 5 U.S.C. § 5315.

The Act, however, does not make clear whether the "rate of pay" that identifies officials subject to investigation by an Independent Counsel refers to (1) total pay, including locality-based adjustments, or (2) "basic pay," exclusive of such adjustments. If locality-based adjustments are excluded, officials in the Senior Executive Service are not "covered persons." The rate of pay for such officials, excluding locality-based adjustments, can be no higher than $115,700 a year, but the benchmark for coverage -- Level III of the Executive Schedule -- is a yearly pay rate of $123,100. See Exec. Order No. 13033, 61 Fed. Reg. 68,987, 68,992 (1996). On the other hand, if locality-based adjustments are included, officials in the top three levels of the Senior Executive Service (ES-4, ES-5, and ES-6) could become "covered persons," depending on the area of the country where they work. (2)

We believe that locality-based adjustments do not count as part of the "rate of pay" under 28 U.S.C. § 591. When Congress provided for locality-based pay in the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990, 5 U.S.C. § 5304(d)(1)(A), it aimed at "pay parity, between Federal employees and their nonfederal counterparts on a locality-by-locality basis." H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 101-906, at 87 (1990) (calling for comparison with the "rates of pay generally paid to non-Federal workers for the same levels of work within each pay locality"). A locality-based adjustment, therefore, corresponds to the supply-and-demand conditions in the particular location, rather than the importance of the official receiving the adjustment or his or her closeness to the Attorney General. As a consequence, interpreting "rate of pay" to include locality-based adjustments would distort the design of the Act. Persons otherwise not covered by the Act would become "covered persons" as a result of the location where they work, rather than the position they occupy. Such a result would not only fail to serve the purposes of the Act, but would actually be contrary to them as well. A higher-level official, paid as an ES-6 and working in an area to which a specific locality-based adjustment would not be applicable, would not be a "covered person," while a lower-level official, paid as anES-4 and (for example) working in Houston, would be "covered." (3)

Inclusion of locality-based adjustments is also inconsistent with Congress's apparent intent, insofar as it can be discerned from the legislative history. When Congress most recently reauthorized the Independent Counsel Act in 1994, it assumedthat approximately fifty officials would come within the mandatory coverage of the Act. Senate Report at 19, reprinted in 1994 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 764. If locality-based adjustments were included in the "rate of pay" under 28 U.S.C. § 591, the number of additional "covered persons" in the Federal Bureau of Investigation alone would double the total in the government as awhole otherwise reached by the Act. See Memorandum for Michael R. Stiles, United States Attorney, and H. Marshall Jarrett, Chief, Criminal Division, from Steven W. Pelak and Carol Fortine, Assistant United States Attorneys, Re: Additional Information Regarding the Scope of the Independent Counsel Statute at 3 (Mar. 18, 1997). Such a broad sweep would be inconsistent with Congress's understanding.
(Seems like those in office, appropriate themselves more money than they HAVE EARNED or DESERVE.)

Comment

ELECTRODELESS DISCHARGE LAMP PROGRAM
One of the largest uses of electrical energy in both the DoD and civilian sectors is for area lighting. Code 6750 began a small program in FY97 under ONR 6.1 sponsorship to investigate the used of electrodeless discharges for lighting.

The advantage of electrodeless lamps is the elimination of physical electrodes inside of the discharge region. Erosion of the cathode material and the associated poisoning of the discharge gas are the main reasons for lamp failure. By using an electromagnetically coupled discharge the electrodes are removed and the lifetime of the lamp can be extremely long. Presently the group is studying an RF coupled electrodeless lamp where an RF exciter coil surrounds the discharge region filled with different mixtures of gas and metal oxides.

The light produced by the discharge is extremely bright in the optical portion of the spectrum. The key to producing a useful white light lamp is efficiency. Much of the work involves detailed diagnostics of the plasma discharge and the emissions coming from the lamp.

It was too late for 21-year-old Christina Tarsell and 17-year-old Jessica Ericzon. Both healthy, athletic young women suddenly dropped dead shortly after receiving their final injection of Gardasil, a vaccine developed by Merck to protect girls and young women from cervical cancer caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV).

But when Christina’s and Jessica’s shocked families tried to get the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate a vaccine it had inexplicably fast-tracked through the approval process even though only one percent of all cancer deaths are due to cervical cancer, they hit a brick wall.
(Know the FACTS, not testimonials.)

The Tarsells and Ericzons have been vindicated by new documents just released by the FDA’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) under a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Judicial Watch.

In just one year - between Sept. 1, 2010 and Sept. 15, 2011 - 26 new deaths and many more severe adverse reactions – including seizures, paralysis, and blindness – were reported in patients receiving Gardasil injections.

The stories are heartbreakingly similar to the Tarsell and Ericzon tragedies: One healthy 14-year-old girl suffered more than 150 seizures – during which she stopped breathing for up to 40 seconds - following her third Gardasil shot. Another vaccinated 15-year-old suddenly became paralyzed from the waist down the day after receiving her second dose of Gardasil and had to be hospitalized for two months.

The grieving parents of Christina and Jessica told The Washington Examiner that the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) both ignored their repeated requests to investigate possible links between Gardasil and their daughters’ unexplained deaths. It never happened. Since then, dozens more people who were vaccinated with Gardasil have also mysteriously died, and many others experienced serious and debilitating reactions.

That alone should have triggered at least some interest in these two federal public health agencies as to whether there was a cause-effect relationship, but it never happened.

CDC still insists that ىthere was no unusual pattern or clustering to the deaths that would suggest that they were caused by the vaccineî - even though VAERS itself reports 18,727 reports of “adverse events” following Gardasil injections, including 68 deaths.

"These reports raise additional concerns about Gardasil’s questionable safety and provide ample reason to end the push to give it young girls and boys. And the CDC’s continued caginess on reported deaths is disturbing," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

Inter-Agency Advisory Regarding Claims That Smoked Marijuana Is a Medicine

Claims have been advanced asserting smoked marijuana has a value in treating various medical conditions. Some have argued that herbal marijuana is a safe and effective medication and that it should be made available to people who suffer from a number of ailments upon a doctor's recommendation, even though it is not an approved drug.

Marijuana is listed in schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the most restrictive schedule.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which administers the CSA, continues to support that placement and FDA concurred because marijuana met the three criteria for placement in Schedule I under 21 U.S.C. 812(b)
(1) (e.g., marijuana has a high potential for abuse, has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and has a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision). Furthermore, there is currently sound evidence that smoked marijuana is harmful. A past evaluation by several Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA), concluded that no sound scientific studies supported medical use of marijuana for treatment in the United States, and no animal or human data supported the safety or efficacy of marijuana for general medical use. There are alternative FDA-approved medications in existence for treatment of many of the proposed uses of smoked marijuana.

FDA is the sole Federal agency that approves drug products as safe and effective for intended indications. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (FD&C) Act requires that new drugs be shown to be safe and effective for their intended use before being marketed in this country. FDA's drug approval process requires well-controlled clinical trials that provide the necessary scientific data upon which FDA makes its approval and labeling decisions. If a drug product is to be marketed, disciplined, systematic, scientifically conducted trials are the best means to obtain data to ensure that drug is safe and effective when used as indicated. Efforts that seek to bypass the FDA drug approval process would not serve the interests of public health because they might expose patients to unsafe and ineffective drug products. FDA has not approved smoked marijuana for any condition or disease indication.

A growing number of states have passed voter referenda (or legislative actions) making smoked marijuana available for a variety of medical conditions upon a doctor's recommendation. These measures are inconsistent with efforts to ensure that medications undergo the rigorous scientific scrutiny of the FDA approval process and are proven safe and effective under the standards of the FD&C Act.
(How many years have you had NOT to test?)

Accordingly, FDA, as the federal agency responsible for reviewing the safety and efficacy of drugs, DEA as the federal agency charged with enforcing the CSA, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy, as the federal coordinator of drug control policy, do not support the use of smoked marijuana for medical purposes.

Comment

search and replace • FOR IMMEDIATE THOUGHT tobacco a has a high potential for abuse, has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and has a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision).
Furthermore, there is currently sound evidence that smoked tobacco is harmful.

A past evaluation by several Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA), concluded that no sound scientific studies supported medical use of tobacco for treatment in the United States, and no animal or human data supported the safety or efficacy of tobacco for general medical use. There are alternative FDA-approved medications in existence for treatment of many of the proposed uses of smoked tobacco.
(Tobacco kills how many HUNDRED THOUSAND people per year in the U.S.? The world? How is it legal? $$$$$$ It's all in the wording. Tobacco/Marijuana, one is legal and controlled, one is illegal and controlled.

13 November 2011 Last updated at 23:57 ET
An international study has linked an industrial solvent to Parkinson's disease.

Researchers found a six-fold increase in the risk of developing Parkinson's in individuals exposed in the workplace to trichloroethylene (TCE).

Although many uses for TCE have been banned around the world, the chemical is still used as a degreasing agent.

The research was based on analysis of 99 pairs of twins selected from US data records.

Parkinson's can result in limb tremors, slowed movement and speech impairment, but the exact cause of the disease is still unknown, and there is no cure.

Research to date suggests a mix of genetic and environmental factors may be responsible. A link has previously been made with pesticide use.

...Water contaminant

TCE has been used in paints, glue, carpet cleaners, dry-cleaning solutions and as a degreaser. It has been banned in the food and pharmaceutical industries in most regions of the world since the 1970s, due to concerns over its toxicity.

In 1997, the US authorities banned its use as an anaesthetic, skin disinfectant, grain fumigant and coffee decaffeinating agent, but it is still used as a degreasing agent for metal parts.
Computer image of affected neurons in the brain of Parkinson's patients A computer image of affected neurons in the brain of Parkinson's patients

Groundwater contamination by TCE is widespread, with studies estimating up to 30% of US drinking water supplies are contaminated with TCE. In Europe, it was reclassified in 2001 as a "category 2" carcinogen, although it is still used in industrial applications.

PERC, like TCE, is used as a dry-cleaning agent and degreasing agent, and is found in many household products. CCl4's major historical use was in the manufacture of chlorofluorocarbons for use as refrigerants, but it has also been used a fumigant to kill insects in grain.

Genes play a bigger role in Parkinson's disease than previously thought, according to the largest genetic study yet.

Five new common risk genes have been discovered, bringing the tally of genetic susceptibility genes to 11.

The study, published in the Lancet, may bring us closer to a treatment or cure, said a medical charity.

The disease - marked by muscle tremors - was once thought to be caused solely by environmental factors.

Parkinson's, which affects around 120,000 people in the UK, is a neurological condition which usually appears in later life.

It is caused by the loss of nerve cells in a specific part of the brain, perhaps triggered by an environmental toxin.
Continue reading the main story
Parkinson's Disease

* Symptoms usually appear in people who are over the age of 50
* Symptoms include slowness of movement, shaking and stiffness of muscles
* Parkinson's disease is caused by a loss of nerve cells in a part of the brain
* Research is ongoing to identify potential causes
* Parkinson's disease tends to run in families but the exact role that genetics plays is unclear
* Other research is being carried out into environmental factors, such as toxins and pesticides
* Source: NHS Choices

Professor Nick Wood, from London's Institute of Neurology, one of the lead researchers of the study, said: "Discovering five new genes is an exciting step forward and will help us understand more about why and how nerve cells die.

"These findings significantly add to the knowledge base of the increasingly complex picture of the molecules that can cause Parkinson's.

The study, presented at a meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, argues that infection could play "a significant role".

The charity Parkinson's UK said the results should be treated with caution.

Parkinson's disease affects the brain and results in slow movements and a tremor.

Middle-aged mice, the equivalent of being between 55 and 65 in humans, were infected. Six months later they showed symptoms related to Parkinson's, such as reduced movement and decreased levels of a chemical, dopamine, in the brain.

These changes were not noticed in younger mice.

Toxic
Dr Traci Testerman, from the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, said: "Our findings suggest that H. pylori infection could play a significant role in the development of Parkinson's disease in humans.

"The results were far more dramatic in aged mice than in young mice, demonstrating that normal ageing increases susceptibility to Parkinsonian changes in mice, as is seen in humans."

The researchers believe the bacteria are producing chemicals which are toxic to the brain.

PAUL ELIAS | 01/21/10 03:13 PM | AP
SAN FRANCISCO — A unanimous California Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a law that sought to impose limits on the amount of marijuana a medical patient can legally possess.

The California Supreme Court ruled that state lawmakers were wrong to change provisions of the voter-approved Proposition 215. The 1996 measure allowed for patients with a doctor's recommendation to possess an unspecified amount of marijuana.

The Legislature, seeking to give law enforcement guidance on when to make marijuana possession arrests, mandated in 2003 that each patient could have a maximum of 8 ounces of dried marijuana.

The high court says only voters can change amendments that they've added to California's constitution through the initiative process.

The ruling by Chief Justice Ron George left in place the portion of the new law that protects patients possessing a state-issue medical marijuana identification card from arrest. George did note, though, that police were still authorized to make arrests if they believe the cards to be forgeries or reasonably suspects a crime has been committed.

Left open to interpretation: What amount of marijuana is for legitimate personal medical consumption and how much constitutes illegal trafficking?

"The California Supreme Court did the right thing by abolishing limits on medical marijuana possession and cultivation," said Joe Elford, the top lawyer for the marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access. "At the same time, the Court may have left too much discretion to law enforcement in deciding what are reasonable amounts of medicine for patients to possess and cultivate."

The Supreme Court's decision upholds a lower court ruling that tossed out the conviction of Patrick Kelly, a Southern California man who was arrested for possession of 12 ounces of dried marijuana and seven plants. A "confidential informant" called Lakewood Police to report Kelly's possession in October 2005.

Experts testified that the amount of marijuana Kelly had on hand would last him just a few weeks for treatment of hepatitis C, chronic back pain, and cirrhosis.

The ruling was widely expected because the California Attorney General's office largely agreed with the position of Kelly's court-appointed attorney Gerald Uelman, a Santa Clara University law professor.

Also Thursday, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that a doctor's permission to use medical marijuana doesn't preclude police from arresting a patient or searching a home. The court upheld the conviction of Jason Fry, a Stevens County man busted with 2 pounds of marijuana in 2004.

Justices said sheriff's officers who smelled marijuana smoke at his home had probable cause to believe a crime was committed – even after the man presented them with an authorization from his doctor.

Justice Richard Sanders disagreed, arguing that under the ruling, a patient could be searched, arrested and hauled to court every time an officer smelled marijuana at his or her home, even absent any evidence the patient is breaking the medical marijuana law.

November 13, 2011 7:06 PM
In mid September 2008 with the Dow Jones Industrial average still above ten thousand, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke were holding closed door briefings with congressional leaders, and privately warning them that a global financial meltdown could occur within a few days. One of those attending was Alabama Representative Spencer Bachus, then the ranking Republican member on the House Financial Services Committee and now its chairman.

Schweizer: These meetings were so sensitive-- that they would actually confiscate cell phones and Blackberries going into those meetings. What we know is that those meetings were held one day and literally the next day Congressman Bachus would engage in buying stock options based on apocalyptic briefings he had the day before from the Fed chairman and treasury secretary. I mean, talk about a stock tip.
(Cheating is legal.)

While Congressman Bachus was publicly trying to keep the economy from cratering, he was privately betting that it would, buying option funds that would go up in value if the market went down. He would make a variety of trades and profited at a time when most Americans were losing their shirts.

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A San Diego County Sheriff's Department detective was charged Tuesday with drunken driving and hit-and-run in connection with two traffic accidents in Riverside County.

Barbara Jean Crozier, 47, faces one count of injury hit-and-run and two counts of injury DUI -- all felonies -- and four misdemeanor counts of DUI and hit-and-run property damage.

The charges were filed by the Riverside County District Attorney's Office, and Crozier is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday at Larson Justice Center in Indio.

Witnesses told investigators a vehicle with a woman behind the wheel collided with several parked cars and ran over a pedestrian's foot in an apartment complex parking lot at Fred Waring Drive and Town Center Way in Palm Desert on Aug. 30. The witness gave investigators a description of the vehicle and its license-plate number, sheriff's Sgt. Joe Borja said.

Later that night, deputies received a call that a vehicle had crashed into a water fountain at the entrance of the Marrakesh Country Club at 47000 Marrakesh Drive in Palm Desert. The license plate of the vehicle matched the one from the hit-and-run, Borja said.

Crozier was arrested and booked at the Indio jail on suspicion of hit-and-run and driving while intoxicated, Borja said. She posted a $50,000 bond on Sept. 6.

The detective worked out of a Santee substation, a representative from the San Diego County sheriff's personnel department confirmed in September. Officials declined to disclose Crozier's current employment status.

"San Diego Sheriff's Department policy is that when an employee is arrested, an internal affairs investigation is initiated," sheriff's spokeswoman Melissa Aquino told City News Service via email. "Personnel records of peace officers are confidential under Penal Code 832.7, and as such the sheriff's department cannot comment on internal investigations relating to peace officers."

Vinny Gambini: When you look at the bricks from the right angle, they're as thin as this playing card. His whole case is an illusion, a magic trick. It has to be an illusion, 'cause you're innocent. Nobody - I mean nobody - pulls the wool over the eyes of a Gambini, especially this one.

By Ben Hirschler
LONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - The GAVI international immunisations group has agreed to fund the roll-out of vaccines against cervical cancer in developing countries, offering protection against a disease that kills one woman every two minutes.

Nearly 90 percent of the 275,000 deaths every year occur in poor nations, where cervical screening programmes that are routine in rich nations are virtually non-existent.
(What are the deaths caused from? NOT CERVICAL CANCER, I will guarantee it!!!)

The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation said up to two million girls in nine developing countries could be protected from cervical cancer by 2015 under the programme, which still depends on negotiating a final price deal with manufacturers.

Nina Schwalbe, its managing director for policy and performance, said discussions were ongoing with the makers of the world's two approved HPV vaccines, Merck & Co Inc and GlaxoSmithKline Plc.

Human papillomavirus, or HPV, is a sexually transmitted virus that causes most cases of cervical cancer.

Adolescent girls are commonly vaccinated against HPV in Europe and the United States but the greatest need for the vaccine is actually in the developing world, where the burden of disease is far higher.

"For women in developing countries this is the only option," Schwalbe said in a telephone interview from Dhaka, where a GAVI board meeting gave the green light to the initiative.

"The introduction of an HPV vaccine is a major public health breakthrough -- but to date this vaccine has only been available for women who live in developed countries."

For GAVI, which was set up a decade ago with backing from governments and Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates, the decision to endorse HPV vaccination marks a step change, since until now it has been focused on vaccinating infants.

Merck's Gardasil and GSK's Cervarix are designed for use in girls aged between 10 and 13 years.

The first developing countries could be up and running with vaccination programmes from 2013, with Rwanda and Vietnam -- both of which have conducted pilot vaccination programmes -- likely to be among the first.

U.S. drugmaker Merck said earlier this year it would offer GAVI its Gardasil shot at a deeply discounted price of $5 per dose, implying a cost of $15 for a three-dose course. Schwalbe described this as "a good starting offer".

Britain's GSK has not made a public price offer but Jean Stephenne, head of the group's vaccines business, said he looked forward to discussing how to provide Cervarix in a sustainable way to GAVI.

GAVI's move to close inequalities in access to HPV vaccination was welcomed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who also praised a separate plan by the Geneva-based group to open a funding window for vaccines against the rubella virus, which can lead to birth defects and miscarriages.

MALARIA NEXT?

The go-ahead for the HPV and rubella projects follows a successful meeting in London in June, when international donors pledged $4.3 billion to help the group with its work.

GAVI says it has prevented more than 5.5 million child deaths in the last decade by bulk-buying vaccines against diseases such as pneumococcal pneumonia, Haemophilus influenzae type b, or Hib disease, diphtheria, pertussis or whooping cough, tetanus, measles and rotavirus.

With the move into HPV it will be buying a more complex and expensive vaccine than those used in existing programmes, paving the way for other similarly price-sensitive decisions in future.

In a few years, GAVI will have to decide whether to buy the world's first malaria vaccine, also developed by GSK and designed exclusively for use in the developing world.

The vaccine, known as RTS,S or Mosquirix, halved the risk of five- to 17-month-olds getting the mosquito-borne disease in a recent clinical trial but the shot is no panacea, since it is less effective than vaccines against common infections such as polio and measles.

Schwalbe said the RTS,S results to date were very encouraging but GAVI was waiting to see the outcome of using the vaccine in babies aged six to 12 weeks, expected in a year's time, before taking any decisions. If all goes well, GSK believes the vaccine could reach the market in 2015.

It was too late for 21-year-old Christina Tarsell and 17-year-old Jessica Ericzon. Both healthy, athletic young women suddenly dropped dead shortly after receiving their final injection of Gardasil, a vaccine developed by Merck to protect girls and young women from cervical cancer caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV).

But when Christina’s and Jessica’s shocked families tried to get the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate a vaccine it had inexplicably fast-tracked through the approval process even though only one percent of all cancer deaths are due to cervical cancer, they hit a brick wall.
(Know the FACTS, not testimonials.)

The Tarsells and Ericzons have been vindicated by new documents just released by the FDA’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) under a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Judicial Watch.

Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan cut off supply lines to NATO troops in Afghanistan and ordered a U.S. withdrawal from a drone base after reports that helicopters of the U.S.-led NATO force in Afghanistan killed at least 24 Pakistani troops at a border post.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani “strongly condemned” the attack and ordered the Foreign Ministry to address the incident “in the strongest terms” with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the U.S., his spokesman said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.

Gilani also called an emergency meeting of the cabinet’s defense committee, which ordered the U.S. to withdraw from the Shamsi Airbase within 15 days.

Army Chief of Staff Ashfaq Kayani said the attack was a “blatant and unacceptable act,” and demanded urgent action against those responsible. The attack is at least the fourth on a Pakistan border facility by NATO forces in 15 months and aggravated already tense U.S.-Pakistan relations.
(Hitler like attack?)

Pakistan’s defense committee, in a written statement from Islamabad, said the attacks “constituted breach of sovereignty, were violative of international law and had gravely dented the fundamental basis of Pakistan’s cooperation” with U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The U.S. and Pakistani governments have been trying to stabilize their relationship after a year that included Pakistan’s detention of a CIA contract employee for killing two Pakistanis, the U.S. raid that that killed Osama bin Laden in May, and public accusations by top U.S. officials that Pakistan’s army is actively aiding militant groups that the U.S. defines as terrorist.

‘Difficult Position’
“This incident puts General Kayani in a very difficult position among his troops,” Talat Masood, a retired army lieutenant general and security analyst in Islamabad, said in an interview. “I don’t think both allies will go to the tipping point, but it makes things even worse at a time when the Obama administration was trying to restore a working relationship with Pakistan after the Osama bin Laden incident.”